Hemingway once said that Ivan Turgenev’s “The Rattling Of Wheels” was the best short story of all time. I recently read it, and it reached a fine climax despite a slow start, but there are others I prefer. Annie Proulx’s “People In Hell Just Want A Drink Of Water,” for example. Or that haunting piece, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. Or an incredibly evocative story that Justin Heckert recently showed me: “Heat,” by Joyce Carol Oates.
For a lot of us who write narrative nonfiction in the range of, say, 4,000 to 10,000 words, great short fiction is an enticing model to follow. We can see the parallels in nonfiction stories such as Gary Smith’s “Walking His Life Away,” or this blistering early work by Ben Montgomery, “Everyone Knew About John Kidd’s Problem….”
Let’s hear from Gangrey Nation. What are your all-time favorite short stories? And what are your favorite non-fiction stories that sound like short fiction?
Also, what are the disadvantages of trying to make nonfiction sound like a short story?
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